Nurse Jackie will get a fifth season under former Dexter showrunner

Awaking to find that the Earth is still revolving and the atmosphere still has the appropriate balance of nitrogen and oxygen, Showtime president David Nevins issued a fifth-season renewal to Nurse Jackie, thus doing what a David Nevins does. "I am David Nevins, and I sound my barbaric yawp of endorsing a Showtime series as 'better than ever' over the roofs of the world!" Nevins said, probably. Anyway, though the Edie Falco-starring comedy is a Showtime original series—and therefore is guaranteed a long and happy life, unless it suddenly forgets how to point cameras at things—its continuation was genuinely in question after the departure of co-creators Linda Wallem and Liz Brixius last month.

But the network has narrowly avoided the catastrophe of actually having to part with a show by bringing in former Dexter showrunner Clyde Phillips, thus ensuring that Nurse Jackie will similarly go on and on, with lots of secrets. Everyone gets a secret! Anyway, the move marks a return to dark comedy for Phillips, whose previous forays include creating Parker Lewis Can't Lose and Suddenly Susan—two shows whose morbid humor (where Parker Lewis is trapped in a world of perpetual winning, and Susan is perpetually, suddenly Susan) should serve him well here.